Sen. Flake revived Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous quote, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." Flake said that the Senator's proposition has been tested more severely than ever before.

"It was a year that saw the White House enshrine "alternative facts" into the American lexicon as justification for what used to be simply called old-fashioned falsehoods."

"Mr. President, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase ‘enemy of the people’ that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of quote ‘annihilating such individuals’ who disagreed with the supreme leader."

Sen. Flake called them shameful, repulsive statements.

He continued, "The president has it precisely backward. Despotism is the enemy of the people. The free press is the despot's enemy which makes the free press the guardians of democracy."

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